Extrusion machine



Jan. 11 1927. I 1,614,256

, o. H. RECHARD EXTRUSION MACHINE Filed Jan. '7, 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 lNVENTOR Jan. 11 1927.

o. H. RECHARD EXTRUSION MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet a Filed Jan.

INVENTOR flihk'lfledard Jan. 11 1 927.

'0. H. RECHARD EXTRUSION MACHINE Filed Jan. 3 sheets -shet s INVENTOR Ofiz'y H. Rec/z arzl WWW! Q 181: A'ITORNEYS v Fatented Jan. 11, 1927. I

isirao STATES PATENT orF cE.

nx'rRUsIoN MACHINE.

Application filed January 7, 1925; Serial No. 977.

This invention is an improvement in ma- A further object is to secure a positive de chines for extruding plastic material to livery of material from the feeding means press and give definite form thereto, for to the extruding auger, and to this end I instance in'the manufacture of fuel'or other provide an auxiliary feeding mechanism ope briquets. It relates to that type of machine crating directly in the path of the main in which an auger or screw conveyor serves feeding-means to remove material therefrom 60 to force the material through one or fmore andqforce it into the auger.

outlets, whereby the stream of emerging ma- A further object is to secure greater uniterial is of a cross-sectional form determined formity of product and the employment of by the size of the outlet, and of a. stiffness or less labor in tending the machine, and to this hardness determined by the character of the end I provide a feed means of such a typematerial and the length of the tubular outand so constructed that it may operate to delet passage. liver thematerial to a series of extruding In machines of this character there is augers whereby all of the augers may draw 5 commonly employed a hopper or container from a separate large-size. container.

from the lower portion of which'the material A further object is to provide an im- 70 is withdrawn by the auger. The side walls proved form of extruding auger and casing, usually converge at the lower end to appronwhereby the material is more efiectively comimately the diameter of the auger, in order pressed in solid bar or tubular form. v

that all of the material may be delivered to In the accompanying drawings I have ilthe anger, but this necessitates the making of lustrated merely one embodiment of my imthe hopper of comparatively small capacity, proved machine, and which I desire to be requiring frequent refilling. considered in an illustrative rather than a Many materi ls are sufficiently stiff or limiting sense. coarse so that as the auger removes material In these drawings:

from the bottom of the hopper, the material Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a machine em- 80 above the auger forms an arch from one bodying my invention.

side wall to the other, and sufficiently strong Fig.2 is a top plan view.

or stiff to support the material at the top. Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. Thus as no more materlal can reach the 2, and

auger, the apparatus ceases to function. Fig. 4 1s a section on the line 44 of Fig. 3.

To overcome this difficulty, various forms The particular machine illustrated is'deof agitators or feeders have been proposed signed primarily for large scale operations to break up the arching effect, or to force in the manufacture'of briquets, as for inthe material into the bite of the auger. Such stance from coal dust and a binder.

de ices operate satisfactorily with some ma- In the machine illustrated there is proterials, but do not overcome the necessity vided a small hopper or chamber 10 in the for frequent replenishing of the hopper or lower portion of which is mounted the exfrequentattention on'the part of the opertruding auger 11. The portion of the auger ative. For economical large scale operations, within the hopper. is preferably substantially as for instance in making fuel briquets, it uniform and substantially equal to the diis important to keep, the labor cost as low ameter of an aperture 12 in the wall of the as p osssible. hopper and through which the'auger extends.

One object of my invention is to provide This outlet opening 12 delivers to a tube 13 an improved means for continuously delivof a smaller diameter than the opening, and

ering the material to the auger from a hopper between the two is aconical connecting poror container of such form and size that the tion 14. The auger. also has a conical pormaterial cannot readily arch over the feeding tion 15 disposed within thisconical section means, and of such size that it does not re- 1% so that the material as it is delivered from quire frequent attention and replenishing. the hopper by the anger is compressed ra- A further object is to provide a feeding dially at the same time it is forced axially, means which will deliver the material diand thus it is placed under the desired high rectly into the bite of the extruding auger, pressure'in the tube 13. The tube ofiers :1 whereby the auger is positively fed. resistance to the passage of the material therethrough, and this makes a back pressure on the material whereby the material is compacted or compressed to the desired degree. By varying the length of the tube 13 the pressure exerted on the material delivered to the tube may be varied at will. If it is desired that the extruded material be of tubular form rather than a solid rod, the shaft or spindle of the auger may have an extension 11 extending into and coaxial with the tube 13, so that there is a continuous central passage in the extruded material.

Outside of the chamber of hopper 10 there is provided a main drive shaft 16 for the auger. This is preferably in alignment with the auger and is connected thereto in any suitable manner, as for instance by projecting the spindle of the auger into a socket in the end of the drive shaft, and retaining it therein by a set screw 17. The shaft 16 is supported in any suitable manner, as for instance by ball bearings 18, and serves as the sole support for the auger. The ball bearings may be at opposite ends of a gear chamber 19 which may be filled with lubricant, and the passage of the lubricant to the hopper or chamber 10 may be prevented by an intermediate chamber 20 in which is mounted the connecting means between the shaft and the auger. An oil packing 21 is disposed at one side of this chamber 20, while the auger has a collar 22 engaging with the wall of the hopper at the other side of the chamber 20. The chamber 20 may have a closure 23 which may be removed to permit operation of the set screw 17 when it is desired to axially adjust the auger or to remove the same. It will be noted that the conical portion 14 of the delivery tube is detachably secured to the wall of the hopper, whereby its removal permits the endWise removal of the auger.

The chamber 10 in the lower portion of which the auger operates, is made comparatively small, and in fact may form merely one section of a transversely extending conduit 24 in which there is mounted a screw conveyor 25. This conveyor has a helical blade and is preferably made very 111Cl1 larger in diameter than the auger 11, and has its blade of such pitch in respect to the relative rates of rotation of the auger and conveyor that it supplies material at an adequate rate for the auger. Preferably the conveyor rotates at a very much slower rate than does the auger, and this is of course possible because of the very much larger size of the conveyor. In order that the material may be positively fed to the auger, the auger and conveyor are mounted at distances apart materially less than the sum of the radii of the blades of the auger and conveyor. In order to permitthis juxtapositioning of the two parts the blade of the conveyor is interrupted or provided with a gap or recess 26 for such a distance along the length thereof as will permit of the free rotation of the feeding conveyor and the auger without either engaging with the other. interruptionin the blade of the conveyor is no greater than is necessary to permit the free operation of both rotary members. It will be noted that the conveyor thus feeds directly into the bite of the auger, so that the material is positively fed into the space between successive turns of the auger blade, and that the auger blade positively removes material laterally from the screw conveyor. This juxtapositioning of the parts with the relative low speed of the conveyor and the relatively high speed of the auger, insures the proper and uniform pressure feeding of the auger and thedesired uniformity of compression on the emerging or extruded material.

The driving mechanism for the feeding conveyor and the auger are so connected as to maintain the desired speed ratios. As shown, the shaft 27 of the conveyor is driven from an auxiliary shaft 28 by a chain 29 and a pair of sprockets, and the auxiliary shaft 28 is driven by a spiral gearing from the main shaft 16. As illustrated this gearing includes a spiral gear 30 on the shaft 16 and a spiral gear 31 on the shaft 28, and within the gear'casing 19. The gearing may serve for speed reduction, and the ratio as well as the relative proportioni'ng of the sprocket wheels of the chain 29 may be varied, so that the feeding conveyor 25 may be operated at the desired speed in accordance with the number and character of the augers. Preferably the pitch of the gear 30 is opposite to that of the auger 11, so that the end thrust on each tends to neutralize that on the other.

If the material be particularly sticky, or adheres to the conveyor so as to rotate with the latter rather than be merely advanced axially of the conveyor, an auxiliary feeding mechanism may be employed. As shown such auxiliary feeding mechanism includes a screw conveyor 32 projecting downwardly from the cover or top wall 33 of the chamber 10 and transversely of the convey-or at the side thereof corresponding to the inlet or receiving end of the auger 11. This auxiliary feeding screw conveyor 32 is carried by a journal 34; and may be driven in any suitable manner. As illustrated, the main drive shaft 16 has a pulley 35 from which a drive belt 36 may pass over a pair of Preferably the size of the gap or Hill idlers 37 to a pulley 38 on the upper end of r the shaft of the feed screw 32.

It will be noted that the auxiliary feeding mechanism 32 operates directly in the path of the screw conveyor 25 and this is possible by reason of the gap or interruption 26 in the blade of the conveyor. The auxiliary feed Gil operates vertically to positively deliver material from the screw conveyor directly into the receiving end of the anger, and operates within the same gap or interruption of the blade as that in which theauger operates. Obviously with many materials the auxiliary feed is not necessary and may be entirely omitted.

As previously indicated, one important feature of my improved machine is the arand for each auger there is a corresponding gap or interrupt-ion in the blade of the screw conveyor. Only one of the auger shafts. 16 need have a drive pulley S9 for the connection to the source of power. The shafts of all of the angers may be connected together for simultaneous rotation from a single source of power in any suitable manner, as for instance by the shaft 28 and gearing 30, 31, to each shaft 16. The drive pulley 39 may be on this shaft 28.

hen a plurality of the angers are fed from a single screw auger conveyor, it is obvious that the pitch of the screw of the latter and the speed of rotation should be such as will adequately supply material to all of the angers. The conveyor itself may receive material from any suitable source, such for instance as a hopper 41, and the conveyor 25 is very much larger in diameter than the auger, it is evident that the hopper 41 may be of such a width that there is no danger of the material arching over in the hopper to interfere with the delivery of material to the feeding conveyor. hopper or container 41 may be made of adequate size to supply a large number of angers for a considerable length of time, and as all of them draw from this same source there will be greater uniformity of product than is possible if each draws from a separate hopper. The end of the tubular casing 24 beyond the last auger may have an outlet 42 for excess, and suitable means may be employed for catching this material and returning it to the hopper 41.

There is preferably provided a conveyor in connection with each delivery tube 13 for carrying away the extruded material. As shown in Fig. 1, this includes a belt running over a pulley 44, and having its upper run below and par llel to the axis of the delivery tube. The extruded material may The be carriedoff on the belt as a continuous rod, to a cut-oil mechanism, or may break into sections by its own weight and fall on to the belt, Cut-oil mechanism may be directly at the end of the delivery tube.

It will of course be understood that the machine is not in any way limited in its use for the making of fuel briquets, but may be employed for mixing, compressing and extruding any sort of plastic or semi-plastic material. The extruded material may be merely dried, or may be heated or baked to additionally harden the same and render it better adapted for shipment, storage, and

use.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. An extrusion machine including an extruding anger and a screw conveyor operating transversely thereof and delivering thereto, the blade of the conveyor having a gap or interruption therein and receiving said anger.

2. An extrusion machine including a screw conveyor, an'extruding auger operating transversely thereof, the distance be- ".veen the axes of said conveyor and anger being less than the sum of the radii of the conveyor and anger, and the blade of the conveyor having a gap within which the auger operates.

3. An extrusion machine having an extruding auger and a feed screw of larger diameter and operating transversely thereof, the auger being disposed intermediate of the ends of the conveyor.

4. An extrusion machine including a screw coiweyor having an aperture in the periphery of the blade thereof, an auxiliary feeding mechanism disposed adjacent to said conveyor and operating Within said recess, and an extruding auger receiving the material from said auxiliary feeding means.

5. An extrusion machine including a screw conveyor having a helical blade provided with a gap in the peripheral edge thereof, an auxiliary feeding mechanism operating transversely of the conveyor and within said gap, and an extruding auger also operating transversely of said conveyor and within said gap, said auxiliary feeding mechanism and said auger being disposed at right angles to eachother.

6. An extrusion machine including a screw conveyor and a plurality of extruding angers arranged along the length thereof and each receiving material therefrom.

7. An extrusion machine including a plurality of extruding angers and a feeding mechanism disposed transversely thereof and operating to deliver material to each of said angers.

8. An extrusion machine including a plurality of extruding angers and a feed ing mechanism disposed transversely thereof and operating to deliver material into the bit of each of said angers.

9. An extrusion machine including a tubular casing, a screw conveyor disposed therein, and a plurality of extruding angers disposed transversely of said casing and projecting into the latter.

it). An extrusion machine including a plurality of extruding angers arranged side by side, a separate casing for each auger, a casing formed of sections and connecting said first mentioned casings together in series, and screw conveyor disposed in said last mentioned casing.

11. An extrusion machine including a tubular casing, a screw conveyor disposed therein and having chambers along the length thereof, and a plurality of extruding angers arranged side by side, one operating in each of said chambers.

12. An extrusion mach'ne including a tubular casing, a screw conveyor disposed therein and having chambers along the length thereof, and a plurality of extruding angers, each operating in a separate one of said chambers, and projecting into the path of the material advanced by said conveyor.

13. An extrusion machine including a tubular casing having chambers arranged along the length thereof, a conveyor Within said casing and having interruptions'in the blade thereof at each of said chambers, and transversely disposed extruding angers Within said chambers and disposed opposite to the corresponding interruptions in said conveyor. 1

1 1. An extrusion machine including a plurality of parallel extruding angers arranged side by side each having a feed chamber, a casing connecting said chambers together in series, a second and larger feed chamber, and a screw conveyor for delivering material from said last mentioned feed chamber through said casing to each of said first mentioned feed chambers.

15. An extrusion machine including a drive shaft. an extruding auger having a helical blade, a feeding mechanism for delivering material to said auger, and a driving means for said feeding mechanism and including a worm wheel on said drive shaft and of opposite pitch to that of the-auger, whereby end thrust on one counteracts end thrust on the other.

Signed at York, in the county of York and State of Penna., this 27th day of December A. D. 1924- OTTIS H. RECHARD. 

